The present disclosure relates to spinal fusion surgery and more particularly pertain to a new system and method for lengthening an existing spinal support structure for facilitating a surgical procedure for revising by extending a previous spinal support construct used, for example, for spinal vertebral fusion.
Conventional spine surgeries, such as spinal fusion surgery, involves the installation of a rod connected to screws mounted on individual spinal vertebrae, and in the past required forming an incision in the tissue of the patient that extended for at least the distances between the most distant vertebrae to which the rod was to be mounted, and typically at least the length of the rod to be installed. More recently, a minimally invasive technique has been developed and used in which a number of smaller incisions are formed in the back, rather than the traditional single long incision, with each incision generally corresponding to one of the locations of the pedicle screw to be placed. One or more additional incisions may be formed to permit lengthwise insertion of the rod into a position that is adjacent to the screw, so that the rod may be attached to the previously mounted screws.